Because, these are my words, and I make them stick

05/22/2013

Eve – Lip Lock – The STiXXclusive Review

So, is this what’s happening in music now? The greats of the past who take a hiatus are just going to re-emerge from the abyss to put out some music? That’s something that many wouldn’t complain about at all, but the problem is – what will they sound like. Female rappers (Femcees if you prefer) have fallen off drastically, and there really is no argument about this. Foxy Brown, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott, Ms. Jade, and Eve were a part of the great MCs that were representative of the Female Hip Hop movement that was started by Queen Latifah, The Real Roxanna, MC Lyte, and countless others. A lot of people are wondering to themselves (or publicly) – what happened to those days? In a modern time where female emcees embrace the sexual image more than the lyrics that their paid to project for a wide audience, many of them have just seemed to lose the concept of what it is to be in a position of influence and power. Eve left, did some acting, and then came back with little promotion to drop an album. The question (and fear) was if she was going to take the Conservative approach, or return as the Eve of old to bring a significant voice back to females in Hip Hop. One could only tell, but it didn’t take long to discover which direction she was going in.

It only took 15 seconds into Eve that made me want to turn off the album in its entirety. Rappers and their wanting to explore into different genre sounds needs to end (See: Lasers by Lupe) because it’s not for everyone, and it gets highly annoying. Already right off the bat, I can tell that Eve played it safe and already it sounds Top 40-ish. No bueno. The makes her announcement known, as she’s ready to step back up and take her “throne” but sounding like this? You make yourself sound like a gimmick. She brings that Philadelphia aggression with that sexual appeal, and that’s what she was known for – but just under better production. This was a giant leap, and she missed the edge. She’s just falling, and this is only the first track. Lord. And another thing – what’s with the obsession of everyone putting Jamaican artists speaking over their tracks now? I know Biggie did it with ‘Respect’ on Ready to Die, and Pusha T fully embraces Dancehall & Reggae, but seriously? It’s becoming too much – you’re doing too much.

The only thing ‘bad bad’ about this song is Eve, and I mean bad bad, not good, type of bad. She Bad Bad was the first single, and I honest to God hoped that it was just a throwaway because this sounded like a Twerk song attempt gone horribly wrong and it wasn’t working out for me. I get it – twerk songs are the new craze and everyone and their mother’s aunt’s grandmother is doing it, but let’s be serious right now; it needs to end, because it’s not a good look for the game. I look at these types of songs as just bill payers – something that just congests some time to rake in some money, and I get that, but when you’re flipping your appeal from what we’ve been used to and think that the fans will still support you with songs like this? I don’t think so.

After ‘She Trash Trash’, I was like “self, browse through the rest of the songs on this album and see how they sound,’ and what would I discover? They all collectively sound the same (Mama in the Kitchen sounds the most ‘hip hop-ian” of the whole album). The emphasis of her album which was highly repetitive talked about her coming back from her leave of absence, and also following through on addressing her haters. This is what bothered me about the album – I think there has to be a certain period in time when you just have to look at yourself; look at your life and everything you’ve accomplished and going forward ask yourself if it’s still worth it. Being an independent artist, she was full control of all of her own stuff, and (as recently told) she geared this album towards an international market, which would explain all of the techno noise. If you’re going to do a drastic change in your style, you might as well keep it far from North America, because you know that there’s a certain standard that you have to live up to these days. I’d much rather listen to Nic – I’m not finishing that sentence.

Been a couple years and the game done changed
She rollin down, fucked up, so mundane
Where the real G’s at? Man fuck these lames
My money feel long so I can’t complain – (Wanna B)

Oh, the irony of those lines, because the game has changed, and Eve has turned lame for this one – you can flaunt about your sex appeal and the money you have, but what good are the words being spewed out if no one’s feeling them? This album is a big ‘WTF’ slapped in your face, because you just wonder to yourself just what happened, and what you were listening to. It’s like when you take a T-Shirt that you want to wear, give it a smell, and immediately it stinks and you throw it in the laundry bin – in this case, you throw this album in the trash, or at least keep it in Europe, if that was your target destination. I thought that Eve would have changed it around and brought back a significant respect to women in Hip Hop (because they don’t have a real representation), but I guess that I was wrong. I wouldn’t advise anyone to listen to it, unless you’re just generally intrigued by how bad it is; to each their own, but approach at your own risk. Maybe Eve should have just locked her lips instead of open them for this album. This is my opinion, this is my review, but for now